The biggest news taking place in the real estate market at the Honua Kai Resort and Spa this month has to be the asset management company in charge of the remaining developer inventory announcing 50 New Price Reductions on Two and Three Bedroom Units. As subsequent to these reductions, there have been many letters of intent (aka LOI, a completely non-binding one page offer sheet) submitted to the developer and there will be many more. I have heard that roughly 20 of these 50 properties are either formally under contract or under reservation agreements and off the market with LOI statements being submitted.

Just as an fyi to potential buyers – a fair amount of these properties do fall out of agreement as buyers can both change their mind or simply cannot qualify for the desired financing on said units. This fallout creates new opportunities for buyers on the sidelines to jump in the game, please do reach out to me directly about these opportunities which change on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.

Please reach out to me directly for current developer pricing and availability sheets. There are currently 6 resale units priced under $1 million, a mixture of studio, one bedroom, and one bedroom plus den units. Honua Kai Resale Inventory Gallery.

Hokulani #1022 – 2bd./2ba. 1,235 sq.ft. a mountain view unit closing on 3.18.13 for $850,000. Resale unit, sold by the developer on 12.14.12 for $609,900.

Hokulani #520 - 2bd./2ba. 1,240 sq.ft. an ocean view unit (although classified by the front desk program as a partial ocean view unit) closing on 3.28.13 for $1,000,000. Resale unit, sold by the developer on 1.23.2009 for $927,302.

Highest Closing at Honua Kai in 3 Years

As mentioned above, Konea #701 (photo from large covered balcony above), a resale property, just recently closed for $4,450,000. This unit was originally purchased from the developer for $4,726,250 in early 2010. This was the highest closing since Konea #651, a developer unit closed in mid 2010 for $5,391,250.

Conclusions/Observations From These Sales

One of the many questions that buyers ask me about when considering what unit to purchase at Honua Kai is which tower I prefer, or which one is better. I certainly feel that this is a matter of personal preference, but here is some pertinent information: as of right now there is certainly more activity going on in the Hokulani tower and thus Konea is more quiet (albeit this is likely to change in the near future with the arrival of the spa and new restaurant).

I personally much prefer the look and feel of the Hokulani lobby; it is much more elegant and refined, and for whatever reason the prices at the Konea tower are definitely higher than Hokulani. You will notice this pricing trend pretty much across the board when comparing Hokulani units to Konea unit provided that you are comparing similar closing time frames.

We are starting to see the resale market at Honua Kai become more prominent and I think this trend will continue if more sellers that purchased in 2011 after the large developer price cuts decide to put their units on the market. Just about of all the owners who purchased from 2011 onward are sitting on some pretty substantial equity – the couple of exceptions to this would be owners of higher priced inventory – I do think this will be the last part of the market to show substantial gains.

Are Prices Increasing at Honua Kai?

The answer is both “yes” and “no.” Yes, we are starting to see some pretty significant price increases in the entry level resale units at Honua Kai. Three of the 4 properties that were part of my previous blog posting, One Bedroom/One Bath Mountain View Unit Sold for $525,000, sold at a substantial increase over the developer sale prices (see above for comparison).

In addition to these one bedroom units, scroll back up to see this same illustration on some two bedroom units in Hokulani #1022 and Hokulani #520. There are a couple resale units that are currently under contract that also illustrate the price trends at Honua Kai increasing at the lower end of the spectrum.

Hokulani #724 – 1 bd./1ba. 620 sq.ft. mountain view unit currently listed at $625,000 that I hear is going to close in excess of $600k. As you will note above, there have been many developer sales on comparable units closing in the mid and high $400k range after the price cuts in 2011, and more recently, a couple of the resale units closing in the high $400k range as well as Hokulani #528 at $525,000. This particular owner will likely be loosing a few thousand dollars on this property as they did purchase it for $608,400 in mid 2010.

Konea #610 – 1bd./1ba. 730 sq.ft. partial ocean view currently listed at $669,750 and likely to close in the $650k range. This particular owner saw the market changing very quickly at Honua Kai and decided to actually increase the price of their property from $649,000 and it is my gut feeling that

they will be closing at very close to this price. This owner paid $505,000 for this unit in September of 2011.

Hokulani #422 – When this 2bd./2ba. 1,080 sq.ft. mountain view unit that closed in mid 2011 for $510,000 closes it is going to be a real eye opener as the property is currently listed at $889,000. I have heard that this property will likely be closing in the mid $800k range, which is a huge increase in price from the developer sale. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see this property close in the mid $700k range, but seeing the prices increase so rapidly in such a short period of time was a bit alarming.

No, prices are not increasing on the higher end of spectrum for the inventory at Honua Kai as there are a couple two bedroom resale units currently under contract that are selling for a couple hundred thousand less than the developer prices. Furthermore, as I mentioned in the beginning of my blog, there have been 50 New Price Reductions on Two and Three Bedroom Units.

I am going to predict that moving forward that the entry level purchase price for Honua Kai condos will be in the low $600,000 range – units that would likely fall into this price range would be one bedroom mountain view units and partial ocean view studio units.

New Listings at Honua Kai

The view from the covered lanai at Konea #544 a new resale unit with a strong ocean view directly towards the white sandy beach in front of Honua Kai and several other view corridors between the two buildings at the Mahana and the Ka’anapali Beach Club.

Please do reach out to me directly for the latest pricing and availability lists on the developer inventory. Furthermore, I am aware of properties at Honua Kai that are not actively on the market but could be potentially purchased – it never hurts to shoot me an email and let me know what you are looking for and I will do my best to bring all available options to your attention as I do market regularly to Honua Kai sellers and keep a very close ear to the ground on what is going on there.

When writing this update I also noted that Hokulani #745, another two bedroom/two bath ocean view (picture above taken from the covered lanai) property, just fell out of escrow listed at $1,350,000. The owner of this property paid $1,775,000 in 2009 and this unit is priced very aggressively compared to all inventory at Honua Kai. For the details on this property please be sure to check out my Honua Kai Resale Inventory Gallery.

Honua Kai Buyers

If you are a buyer and have been waiting to get into the market at Honua Kai – I would recommend that you act as soon as possible. Honua Kai performs as a whole better than any short term vacation rental complex that I have seen in all of West Maui and the popularity is continuing to soar through the roof.

Lending rates are just incredibly low right now and I think this is the last time that we are going to see large scale price reductions on developer on lower priced inventory. I do think that they will eventually need to consider more price cuts on the multi-million dollar units, but this could be a ways off and with the way that the market is recovering – they may not need to do this.

Honua Kai Sellers

I have done extensive market research on Honua Kai and feel very confident in my ability to pinpoint very accurate values for your property. Maybe you would like to consider selling your unit to transition to another property at Honua Kai, or to accomplish other goals? I can help you get there.

There is no agent and brokerage firm that is going to offer you more international exposure, precise knowledge of the resort, and attention to detail and service to get the job done. Be sure to check out what one of our resale sellers had to say about their experience Honua Kai 2 Bedroom/2 Bath Condo Sold a Seller’s Perspective.

My Blog Series on Honua Kai Condos

Honua Kai Resort in Kaanapali, Maui – Start here, as this blog will provide you with a good overview of the resort including video on its location, and its world class amenities and ownership offerings.